Amid April 15 Frenzy, Filers Show Sympathy for a Tax Cheat

By BRUCE WEBER

Published: April 16, 1992

In a minority view of April 15, Thomas M. Bloch said yesterday: "It's a great day." But Mr. Bloch is president of H & R Block, the giant tax-preparation franchise operator, which he said handles about one in seven American tax returns, or about 14 million last year.

Chances are that Leona M. Helmsley would not agree with Mr. Block, who explained that when his father and uncle started the company, based in Kansas City, Mo., they changed the last letter of the name "so people wouldn't call it 'Blotch.' " Though the symbolism of Mrs. Helmsley's trip to prison yesterday has not been lost on most of America, Mr. Block said of her case: "If anything it sends a message to taxpayers. Considering we have a self-assessment system in this country, maybe it's good."

Of Mrs. Helmsley's predicament, the Internal Revenue Service shares Mr. Block's opinion. "If there's any lesson, it's that justice is blind and the law applies equally to all people," said Neil O'Keefe, a spokesman for the Manhattan district of the I.R.S.

But given a choice of villains, most New Yorkers interviewed yesterday had more sympathy for the so-called Queen of Mean than for the Government that was putting her away on the same day it was collecting their money.

"She's basically paying for all of our sins," said Paul Zann, a tax consultant who runs the Federal Tax Service Company in Manhattan.

And Lynne Marcus, an accountant in Rego Park, Queens, said: "My own opinion and that of 95 percent of my clients was that sending her to jail was absolutely ridiculous. Their sympathy is for her, not for the Internal Revenue Service."

Traditionally, of course, April 15 is a great day for grousing, and there are dozens of accommodating grouse centers around town.

At Murder Ink, a bookstore on the Upper West Side, Jim Weikart took a couple of hours off from his job as a tax consultant to give a reading of his forthcoming novel, "Harry's Last Tax Cut," in which the protagonist, a tax consultant and detective, forms a drunken partnership with a guy he meets in a bar, and the guy turns up dead shortly afterward.

He said that though he's no fan of Mrs. Helmsley: "Leona's a real example. That's the way the I.R.S. works." That she was sent away yesterday, he said, "I don't think it's an accident."

Photo: It was the day of the other thing that cannot be evaded. Before the eternal inevitable, there comes the earthly one. Taxes must be paid. At the main branch of the post office in Manhattan, a filer arrived hours before the dreaded deadline to pick up his forms and start the annual ritual. (Edward Keating/The New York Times)